Suprising answer from wheel manufacturer re: wheel PSI rating. Thoughts?

[TexasTom]

Originally Posted by Elwood58

And for goodness sake, get your trailer weighed when ready to travel, and set your tire pressures to those recommended by the tire manufacturer.

This is the only correct way to handle this properly

[TXiceman]

Originally Posted by Elwood58

And for goodness sake, get your trailer weighed when ready to travel, and set your tire pressures to those recommended by the tire manufacturer.

What he said.

Ken

[msh45]

Originally Posted by CharlesinGA

This is the OP's FIRST post

OP joined the forum on 7/27 (thats Tuesday) made the post at 11:41 and was last logged on the site (with their user ID) at 11:44 am.

OP has not told us what year, make, specific model of trailer they have

OP has not told us what brand, and size tire they are using

OP has not told us how many lugs or how wide his steel 15 inch rims are

All of that being said..................

For a 15 inch trailer rim to have a 2860 lb rating, it has to be a 6 lug/on 5.5 circle rim (except for "Directional" and "Solid Center" patterns which are limited to 2600 lbs) (five lug rims are limited to 2200 lb ratings, 2150 for "Directional" and "Solid Center" pattern wheels.)

Still trying to figure out what tires the OP might have. I have GY Endurance ST225/75-15E tires rated at 2830 lbs (which is the highest rated Endurance ST tire GY makes in 15 inch.) and I have mine on Sendel T03 "bullet" wheels with 6/5.5 lug pattern and the wheels are rated at 3200 lbs, but I have 3500 lb axles and thus 1750 lb spindles (and hubs), so I am way "over tired" for my 7000 lb trailer.

By the way, for those that are not aware, Dexstar is NOT owned by Dexter Axle. Dexter Axle sold the steel wheel division a number of years ago to Kenda Group, and not to bad mouth them, because the wheels are 100% American made and of good quality.

Charles

First, apologies to everyone who has taken the time to respond for my delay in getting back to this thread (life got in the way yesterday afternoon). This was my first post so I hope I haven't squandered too much goodwill -- I do appreciate the responses.

Regarding the tires and rims, (ya'll have pretty much already guessed correctly) -- the tires I purchased are the Transeagle ST Radial TA17A 225/75R15. They are G-rated 15" tires. My rims are 6-lug Dexstar 017-144.

My rationale for buying these with plans to run them at 80psi, rather than just buying E-rated tires, is because, frankly, they're much more substantial tires than any E-rated tire I've seen. They seem very similar to Sailun s637's, just in a 15" size. Since my trailer is single-axle, I would like as much protection against puncture or impact as possible. The sidewalls and tread of these are very thick compared to an E tire. GVWR of my TT is under 4900 lbs, and I'm currently running D-rated Castle Rocks, so running at 80psi should provide a bit more load capacity headroom than my current D-rated set. I'm also hopeful that the stiffer sidewall will provide a bit more resistance to lateral sway when a large truck passes. I do have a properly-installed WD hitch and friction anti-sway. Sway is not bad, but I do feel the lateral push / pull occasionally when a large truck blows by.

Thanks again for the help

[msh45]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Elwood58 View Post
And for goodness sake, get your trailer weighed when ready to travel, and set your tire pressures to those recommended by the tire manufacturer.

Originally Posted by TXiceman

What he said.

Ken

For every person I see who says "always inflate to sidewall pressure" or "always inflate to what the sticker on the trailer says", I see another person who says "match the inflation pressure to the load". I also see load inflation charts from the tire manufacturers that show pressures and load ratings at various pressures below "max inflation pressure".

I have looked at charts from Sailun, Toyo, and Goodyear, and in all cases, their G-rated ST tires handle E loads at 80psi.

Please don't take the above the wrong way, I don't mean to argue, it's honestly just not clear. Given that the manufacturers themselves provide these load tables, and there are others online who are running these Transeagles @ 80psi with loads similar to mine (~2200lbs / tire) without issue, I feel reasonably comfortable with this. Am I crazy?

[Garyp4951]

I thought this was the tire you bought, and I just recently read about them being available for 15" rims, which is great.
The tire inflation charts should keep you straight on what psi to use for this tire.

[JIMNLIN]

Please don't take the above the wrong way, I don't mean to argue, it's honestly just not clear. Given that the manufacturers themselves provide these load tables, and there are others online who are running these Transeagles @ 80psi with loads similar to mine (~2200lbs / tire) without issue, I feel reasonably comfortable with this. Am I crazy?

'yer normal for a newb at using tires on trailers ....as we all were at some time.
Your getting input from some who only know about their trailers tires and what they read on the net. These type may pull a trailer in the summer and maybe 5-6k miles or less.
Others have had a couple of trailers over a 10-12 year period and never wore a tire out on their trailer.
And some have pulled trailers for hundreds of thousands of miles and 30-40 years of experience of what worked the best vs what didn't.
So who to believe.

We do have a tire engineer Roger Marble. Tireman9 is his user name. See his https://www.rvtiresafety.net/2013/11...no-babble.html for input about tires used on trailers. You soon learn whatever you know about tires on your truck you can forget as tires on a trailer operate in a much worse completely different environment.

Tireman9 has pages and page of tire tech for tires used in a trailer position. After a while you soon learn reasons over tiring a trailer or derating capacities because the tire had too much capacity for the wheel or the trailers axle loads (above maybe 15-25 percent) isn't the best idea.

Its been my experience heavy sidewall tires like load E/F/G/H do not like to be operated below 10-15 lbs below max sidewall pressures. WE all should know using low pressures = more sidewall flex and a hotter operating tire than the same tire at max pressures.

[msh45]

Originally Posted by TXiceman

What he said.

Ken

Originally Posted by Garyp4951

I thought this was the tire you bought, and I just recently read about them being available for 15" rims, which is great.
The tire inflation charts should keep you straight on what psi to use for this tire.

You nailed it!

[Old-Biscuit]

'G' rated tire run at 80 psi is an underinflated tire

Take some sidewalk chalk (big stick) and make a wide mark side to side across trailer tires

With trailer loaded camp ready
Drive straight forward for at least 25' ---more the better
Check Chalk mark
Is the chalk even across thread...Inflation OK
Is chalk scrubbed off in center.....Over Inflated
Is chalk scrubbed off on edges....Under Inflated
Be honest with your evaluation of the chalk mark

Good luck!

[msh45]

Originally Posted by JIMNLIN

'yer normal for a newb at using tires on trailers ....as we all were at some time.
Your getting input from some who only know about their trailers tires and what they read on the net. These type may pull a trailer in the summer and maybe 5-6k miles or less.
Others have had a couple of trailers over a 10-12 year period and never wore a tire out on their trailer.
And some have pulled trailers for hundreds of thousands of miles and 30-40 years of experience of what worked the best vs what didn't.
So who to believe.

We do have a tire engineer Roger Marble. Tireman9 is his user name. See his https://www.rvtiresafety.net/2013/11...no-babble.html for input about tires used on trailers. You soon learn whatever you know about tires on your truck you can forget as tires on a trailer operate in a much worse completely different environment.

Tireman9 has pages and page of tire tech for tires used in a trailer position. After a while you soon learn reasons over tiring a trailer or derating capacities because the tire had too much capacity for the wheel or the trailers axle loads (above maybe 15-25 percent) isn't the best idea.

Its been my experience heavy sidewall tires like load E/F/G/H do not like to be operated below 10-15 lbs below max sidewall pressures. WE all should know using low pressures = more sidewall flex and a hotter operating tire than the same tire at max pressures.

All great info, thank you. Not sure what I'm going to do -- if I mount them I'm going to carry a IR temp gun for a bit and regularly check the tire temp to make sure everything looks good.

[msh45]

Originally Posted by Old-Biscuit

'G' rated tire run at 80 psi is an underinflated tire

Take some sidewalk chalk (big stick) and make a wide mark side to side across trailer tires

With trailer loaded camp ready
Drive straight forward for at least 25' ---more the better
Check Chalk mark
Is the chalk even across thread...Inflation OK
Is chalk scrubbed off in center.....Over Inflated
Is chalk scrubbed off on edges....Under Inflated
Be honest with your evaluation of the chalk mark

Good luck!

I plan on doing the chalk test for sure, thanks. I'm not so sure it will be underinflated given the load. May actually be a bit over-inflated given I'm currently running tires @ 65psi. We'll see!

[Old-Biscuit]

Originally Posted by msh45

I plan on doing the chalk test for sure, thanks. I'm not so sure it will be underinflated given the load. May actually be a bit over-inflated given I'm currently running tires @ 65psi. We'll see!

Point is you had 'D' rated and Jumped 3 ratings UP

A good 'E' rated tire would have been better suited for your signle axle trailer
'G' is OVER rated....no benefit and Not using to their potential
Waste of money

[msh45]

Originally Posted by Old-Biscuit

Point is you had 'D' rated and Jumped 3 ratings UP

A good 'E' rated tire would have been better suited for your signle axle trailer
'G' is OVER rated....no benefit and Not using to their potential
Waste of money

Fair enough, I suppose my thinking is just that there's more to a tire than it's load rating. Between an E tire @ 80psi and a G tire @ 80psi (downrated to E), I'm still getting a substantially thicker sidewall and tread, which will hopefully last longer and lessen the chance that a random object on the road punctures and leads to explosive decompression of the tire.

This is a single axle trailer I'm pulling, with my family in the tow vehicle, so if the extra hardiness of the G tire offers any additional protection, I'll take it. Th tire feels like a commercial tire, it's certainly the most substantial tire I've ever purchased.

This is all assuming it doesn't overheat due to the lower psi, which is why I'll be monitoring it. Others online are running at 80 and report trouble-free performance over 1+ years, so I'm optimistic.

[JIMNLIN]

Now....now we find out its a single axle trailer and is a whole different ball game from multiaxle trailers and shows how not knowing all the pertinent information about actual OEM tire size/OEM load range/OEM axle size and number of axles can have different answers.

Over tiring a small trailer with load G tires will gain you nothing over a quality OEM size and OEM load range tire.

I use P and LT C on my non rv single or multi axle trailers with the smaller 3500/4400 lb axles and OEM 15" tires/wheels. These trailers run 40k-50k miles on one set....all highway on long all day runs.

Good luck on your decision.

[msh45]

Originally Posted by JIMNLIN

Now....now we find out its a single axle trailer and is a whole different ball game from multiaxle trailers and shows how not knowing all the pertinent information about actual OEM tire size/OEM load range/OEM axle size and number of axles can have different answers.

Over tiring a small trailer with load G tires will gain you nothing over a quality OEM size and OEM load range tire.

I use P and LT C on my non rv single or multi axle trailers with the smaller 3500/4400 lb axles and OEM 15" tires/wheels. These trailers run 40k-50k miles on one set....all highway on long all day runs.

Good luck on your decision.

I mean, I stated plainly in my 2nd post in this thread that it was single axle -- in the same post where I apologized for the delay between my first and second post. I probably should have included that in my first post, but I admittedly don't know everything that could be pertinent and am still learning, which is why I made the post in the first place.


One question -- when you say "overtiring will gain me nothing", please clarify this for me, if you don't mind. If tire A is an E-rated tire, rated to handle, say, 3k lbs @ 80psi, and tire B is a G-rated tire, rated to handle 3.5k lbs @ 110psi and 3k lbs @ 80 psi, but has full steel belting, thicker treads, and thicker sidewalls than the E tire, do I really gain nothing from the added durability of the beefier tire? I fully concede in this scenario that I am not gaining anything in the load department, but it's still a lot more rubber, is it not?